


Red, the Opinionated Lion

by orphan_account



Series: Color Coded [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alfor loves his daughter so much, Alfor's history is a personal headcanon, Just heavy times in Red's personal astral realm, Red takes a lot of leaves out of Blue's book, Red thinks Keith needs to chill, This is inspiredby that same tumblr post, made purely for this plot, more Langst???, platonic klance, pretty much, that's coming from the fire lion, this is still not how tags work, why did i do that - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 22:14:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12022116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Keith is too caught up in wondering about who his mother is-was-argh! He's asked Kolivan about the blade in his possession, but Kolivan knows no more than what Keith has already learned. Red's solution is talking about it with her previous paladin.Lance believes that Red couldn't possibly want him as her pilot. Red disagrees, but Lance doesn't quite believe her. Red's solution? Obviously send him to talk to those who have piloted her before!





	Red, the Opinionated Lion

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote another one, just for you guys! See, I can be nice!

Keith huffed, annoyed that even now he knew little to nothing of his origins. Kolivan, while knowing that Keith had to be part Galra, did not know for sure who could have wielded the blade in Keith’s possession. He paced back and forth in front of Red, arms crossed.

Red growled into his mind. Keith sighed. “I know, I _know_ , knowing who my parents are wouldn’t affect who _I_ am, but.”

The blurry image of a loving smile and the feel of warm arms filled Keith’s memory. Red was reminding him of the memory. “Yeah. It still matters.”

Red went silent, but Keith could still feel her in the back of his mind. The dry heat that seemed to roll off her presence should’ve been too much, but to Keith it was perfect. Comforting. Suddenly, she was scooping him up into her jaw. “Red!”

She growled at him, and he sighed. “I’m going, I’m going!”

The trek to her cockpit was practically instinctual at this point, though strange to do in his casual clothes. He wasn’t even wearing his jacket. Once he had settled into his seat, he crossed his arms. “What did you want, Red?”

Red purred, and Keith shut his eyes. “Alright, Red. I trust you.”

“Well, that’s certainly good to hear,” An unfamiliar voice had Keith jumping back and staring at the man before him with wide eyes.

“Who are you?” Keith demanded, already in a fighting stance.

The man chuckled, and suddenly Keith recognized him. The green markings under his eyes proved him to be Altean, and his white hair was pulled back in a short ponytail, his full beard cleanly groomed. Rather needlessly, the man introduced himself, “I’m King Alfor.”

“I noticed,” Keith responded, his face burning with emabarrasment. He looked around at the scenery. No longer was he seated in Red’s cockpit, but he was standing, at the lip of what appeared to be a very active volcano. Smoke rose over their heads in a single, large column. Lava flowed quickly between himself and Alfor, and the sky was darkened with the smoke. “Where are we?”

“Red’s own personal astral zone. I never knew this existed in my time,” Alfor chuckled. “Fascinating, isn’t it? She even copied my consciousness, I assume. You _are_ the new Red Paladin, yes?”

“Yeah,” Keith mumbled. His eyes followed the lava flow down the volcano and spotted Red, looming over the pooling lava at her feet. “So I’m in her mind?”

“Very much so,” Alfor nodded. “As am I, though I am but a memory now.”

“Why am I here?” Keith shouted towards Red.

Alfor chuckled. “I’m afraid she won’t answer. She’s had plenty of time to speak to me, but she hasn’t. Everything I know of this place is a guess.”

“But you share a consciousness now,” Keith commented.

“But even so, a woman like Red needs her privacy,” Alfor hummed. “You could tell me what you were talking to her about before you came here, though. I happen to be a father, so I know how to talk through feelings.”

Keith smirked. “I know.”

“Do you? Ah, you must know Allura then. Is she alright? After what must have happened to me,” Alfor clarified.

“She misses you,” Keith promised. “At first, she wasn’t even sure she could lead a rebellion without you.”

“Allura will do fine. For now, Red has left _you_ in my experienced care,” Alfor smiled warmly at Keith. The Altean king sat down on the ground and patted the heated stone beside him. Keith snorted, but he came and sat beside the man anyway.

Keith wasn’t sure how to begin. “I guess I should start with the fact that I’m an orphan. So I didn’t get a lot of these feelings talks, if fathers even typically have them.”

“Well, I do it alot. Allura was a very angry child,” Alfor mused.

“Well, my dad wasn’t, before he died. I don’t know if he would have been, later, but he wasn’t when I was a kid. He died when I was eight. But I never really _knew_ what happened to my mother,” Keith went on.

“Ah, I relate,” Alfor mumbled, sadly looking down at Red.

“Really?” Keith asked, looking up at the Altean man in surprise.

“Really. My father was the mystery of Altea, everyone wanted to know who the man who had impregnated Queen Riale was, and mother didn’t speak of him. So yes, I wondered about my father very often.” Alfor explained. He sighed, but offered Keith a smile.

“Well, I wanted to find her. And all I had to go on was this knife,” Keith drew the blade from it’s hilt, examining it carefully.

“The make looks familiar,” Alfor commented.

“It’s a luxite blade, made by the Galra,” Keith muttered. Alfor’s eyebrows jumped.

“Luxite comes only from Daibazaal and other planets in that system,” Alfor muttered idly.

“Every part of it kept being a dead end. Except for this,” Keith unwrapped the hilt and showed the mark to the king. Alfor didn’t appear to recognize it. Keith groaned. “It’s the mark of a group of resistance fighters. They’re unhappy with Zarkon’s rule and have created their organization. But Kolivan told me he doesn’t know who owns this blade, because not all of the Marmora members have their own blades. They have to earn them, carry on the battle of the fallen. So this blade could belong to anyone.”

“Any _Galra_ , but yes. That’s still an awful lot of people to hunt through,” Alfor agreed.

“What do I do?” Keith asked.

Alfor smiled. “If your mother left you with such an important blade, she must have had good intentions. You’ll see her again one day. Or at the very least, learn what happened to her. All you can do is have patience.”

“What about being Galra? Allura hates me now,” Keith sighed, looking at the floor between his legs.

“She’s likely just confused. All of the Galra attacked us when Zarkon turned against us,” Alfor explained. “He was like an uncle to her. She just needs time. Have patience.”

Keith took a deep breath. “Patience yields focus.”

“How wise! Where did you hear that?” Alfor grinned.

“Shiro, our Black Paladin,” Keith explained.

Alfor smiled. “Of course. Tell me about these new paladins?”

Keith nodded, and complied.

___---___---

Lance waited a moment after parking Red back in her hangar.

“Lance?” Hunk’s voice came over the comms. “You okay, buddy?”

“Yeah, go ahead without me,” Lance assured. He watched through the screen as his best friend followed Pidge, Keith, and Allura to the elevators. Lance ran his hand over Red’s dashboard. Her presence in his mind felt hot sunshine on his back, the sticky heat he remembered from home. Lance would miss it when Red kicked him aside.

Red growled in Lance’s head and he winced, his hand flinching away from the dashboard. He looked around. “This wasn’t a one time thing?”

Red’s growl turned into a low, irritated rumble, and images of Voltron filled his head. “I know I formed Voltron with you, but-”

Another loud snarl filled his mind and this time there images of Lance piloting Red, all on his own. “But I messed up, like, a lot.”

Red was purring now, and Lance settled into her seat, his head hitting the back. “Oh. I don’t- I’m your pilot now?”

At an insistent rumbling sound, Lance let his eyes slip shut.

“Ah, a new face!” The low accented voice soothed Lance’s nerves.

“Lance?” Wait.

Lance’s eyes snapped open and he looked around bewildered. “Keith!? What are you doing here!?”

“What am _I_ \- Red is _my_ lion!” Keith scowled.

“W-well, not anymore!” Lance exclaimed. “I pilot Red now!”

A chuckle interrupted Keith before he could speak and both boys turned to face the Altean king Lance had yet to greet. Alfor smiled at Keith. “It seems you too have become one of Red’s astral memories. And you didn’t even die to do it, Black Paladin!”

“Don’t call me that!” Keith snapped. He glared at Lance. “What happened to looking for Shiro?”

“Stop looking at me like that,” Lance huffed. “We had to do this, we looked for Shiro for months and didn’t find anything!”

“Don’t talk about him like he’s replaceable!” Keith shouted, and his eyes glistened a bit brighter. Alfor looked concerned now.

Lance felt fury rise up in his chest. “Why would you think I think of Shiro as replaceable!? Shiro is and always has been my hero! I didn’t want him to disappear, I didn’t want any of us to have to take his place, and I didn’t want to be led by you! But Shiro vanished, we had no other options, and Black _chose_ you. Then suddenly, after Shiro chose you and after Black chose you, you were _rejecting their decision_ and I wouldn’t let you disrespect them like that! I would _never_ call Shiro replaceable, but we had to find a substitute.”

Alfor whistled. “Spoken like a true Red Paladin.”

“What?” Lance asked. Keith gave Alfor his own inquisitive look.

“The Red Paladin is Voltron’s right hand. The support of the Black Paladin, his go to for advice, his second half,” Alfor explained. “Think of it as a platonic soulmate bond.”

Lance dropped to a seated position on the lip of the volcano. “Great. I’m a stand-in for Keith’s buddy cop. Thanks for bringing me here, Red, I feel so much better.”

“Stand-in?” Alfor asked, eyebrows raised.

“Why would you think that Red is using you as a substitute? You know how difficult it is for her to accept new paladins,” Keith scoffed.

“How could I possibly be your right hand man, Keith!? You never listen to me! No one does! My input has no impact to Voltron, because I’m the most useless member of the team! When we find Shiro, I won’t have a useful role anymore. Allura is a much more capable fighter, and she’s the new Blue Paladin, Shiro will go back to Black, and Red will be all too eager to have Keith Perfect-Pilot Kogane back,” Lance scowled. “I’m just me. Just… just Lance, the boy from Cuba.”

“You’re from Cuba?”Keith asked.

“Shut up, Mullet,” Lance glared at him.

Silence descended on the three of them. Into the silence, Alfor said, “First, I’m very proud of Allura for becoming a paladin. Second, you’re Lance, correct? I’m King Alfor.”

“I know,” Lance muttered.

“Yes, well, _third_ , Red is very temperamental. She refuses to take even a single temporary paladin, so I always had to be on call as a paladin. Blue mothered many a one-off paladin, though she loved no one as much as she loved Blaytz. Yellow fostered one or two, Black allowed any paladin to ride her if Zarkon was occupied, and Green was curious enough to allow anyone once,” Alfor described. “Coran has used Yellow, Blue, and Green, but he’s never even seen the inside of Red. My wife piloted Green once.”

“So Red never picks temporary paladins,” Keith shot Lance a hesitant smile. “That means, if anyone was left without a lion, it’d be me.”

“But you’re better at-”

“So you’ll argue with Red, but not with Black?” Keith teased with a smirk. Lance snapped his jaw shut.

“You know, Lance, from what Keith has told me, you aren’t usually like this,” Alfor announced. Lance perked up.

“Keith’s talked about me?” Lance grinned brightly. “What did he say?”

"Just the truth," Keith said. "That you're one of us."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not entirely sure I'll write more of them, but if you want me too, I might! If you want more, let me know which lion you'd want to see next! And again, be nice! This is my first time writing Keith, after all, and I'm a bit nervous about how it will read.


End file.
